"I was concerned with expressing the work in terms of film and I was dealing with a work which in fact dictated itself in terms of how you look at it. We simply considered how very sparely we could aid what actually takes place in terms of seeing the framework in which it takes place. It was valuable, I felt, to see the context in which he existed and so we took the opportunity to see him, I think economically, in relation to the corridors, entrance hall, exterior of the college itself."

Harold Pinter, The American Film Theatre/Cinebill for Simon Gray's Butley, January 1974.

''Pinter's one and only film so far as a director; and one that shows he knows how to shape a scene and can get first rate performances from his actors [...] after a bit of discreet opening out in the early sequences, he gets the feeling of bon mots bouncing off the sickly-green walls of Ben Butley's office like balls off a squash court. Unlike many filmed plays, it doesn't make you wonder why the camera doesn't get out more."

Dada, Surrealism and the Cinema, National Film Theatre, February 1978.

''Pinter makes a striking debut as a film director, his active camera movement preventing any 'stagebound' effect that might ensue from concentrating on only one set. Butley's office becomes a universe, one where self-hatred is but thinly disguised as caustic sarcasm."

Joseph P. Leydon, New Orleans Today, 26-27 January 1974.

'Pinter's shaping of the portrayals and his use of the camera to catch the silences and the reactions as well as the speech, the tensions of the intricate relationships, adds the feeling of his own work as an author to Simon Gray's excellent adaptation of the play."

Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times, 18 January 1974.

''Pinter, the director, has opened up the play a little, but without damaging or lessening the impact of the volley of talk which is the meat of the drama. Life outside Butley's study is revealed."

Bridget Byrne, Los Angeles Herald Examin er, 21 January 1974.